Aderall May Cause Health Complications in Teens

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Aderall May Cause Health Complications
Sudden Student Death Syndrome
Know, Canada!
Over the last 3 years, I've written several times about the proliferation of prescription drugs in our nation's schools - especially those prescribed for psychiatric "conditions" like depression and ADHD. To recap: Just like with illegal drugs marijuana, LSD, and the like, there's a strong market in the modern schoolyard for stimulants like Ritalin, sedatives like Valium, and antidepressants like Zoloft and Paxil (a class of drugs strongly linked to teen suicide, by the way).
Why are these drugs so readily available in schools? Because of their rampant over-prescription by doctors - in response to the equally rampant tendency of parents to "diagnose" perfectly normal youths as mentally imbalanced.
For example, if a child's healthy rambunctious-ness gets on a parent's nerves in the least, he's immediately classified these days as "hyperactive." If a child exhibits perfectly normal bouts of teenage hormonal angst or anxiety, she's labeled "depressed." The answer, according to the pop-culture mainstream, is drugs - which often end up being sold to the highest bidders during recess.
But I digress. The purpose of this essay is to update you on a story I covered a month or so ago (Daily Dose, 1/14/05) about how a scary number of college students nowadays are buying black-market Aderall - an ADHD drug in the same class as Ritalin - in order to score better on tests. In that Dose, I warned against possible health complications (like heart risks) that might haunt these Aderall-addled students in search of a few extra points...
And it looks like I was right.
According to a recent Associated Press article, Canadian regulators have ordered Aderall removed from the market because of a report linking the drug to 20 SUDDEN DEATHS AND MORE THAN A DOZEN STROKES. Seventy percent of these deaths were among children!
Naturally, the FDA has claimed to have evaluated the same data and found no reason for such an action here in the U.S. That means it's up to YOU. If you have a college-aged child or grandchild, I urge you to warn them immediately about the dangers of illegal prescription ADHD drugs on campus. Doing so might just keep that "all-nighter" study session from become the big goodnight.
And if you think it can't happen to YOUR loved ones, keep reading...
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School dazed
The 2003 version of a yearly government report shows that fewer American youths are using marijuana, LSD, and other illegal drugs...
Good news, right?
Not so fast. Replacing these common illicit substances are perfectly legal prescription drugs that are just as dangerous, if not more so. The study, which showed encouraging decreases in illegal drug use, also showed an alarming increase in the use of prescription medication for no-prescription uses - especially among college-aged young adults.
I'm not just talking an incremental increase here. The study showed a whopping 15% jump in prescription drug abuse among 18-25 year-olds when compared to just one year earlier. And in the 12-and-over demographic, 5% more kids used "legal" drugs recreationally than the year before...
To me, these are very scary numbers. It tells me two things: One, that prescription mind-benders are easy for kids of all ages to get; and two, that they're becoming increasingly fashionable in schoolyards and on college campuses.
Add that up and you've got a "prescription" for disaster.
Doing my best to prevent youth-enasia,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD

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